Teachers in Rhode Island currently maintain their certification by showing evidence of continuous professional development. Creating a personal PD plan is a unit-wide assignment in the School of Education for all student teachers. The steps below are designed to guide you through this process so that we can complete it efficiently.
Complete the form based on one of the lessons you taught last week. Be sure to write down specific evidence from either your lesson plan or your memory of your enactment for each assessment you give.
Use a highlighter to identify areas of your teaching/lesson that were either below standard or that you feel needs improvement
Synthesize your review by completing the following table as best your can:
What is the need?
How will improvement help your students?
How will improvement help your school?
RIBT Standard/Element Addressed?
1.
Using inquiry in the classroom on a consistent basis
Students will be able to acheive higher depths of knowledge by doing this. If students had only completed lower depths of knowledge, they'd only be able to recall and identify certain information. In using inquiry however, students will be able to have a much better understanding of he material and how it relates to things in the world by analyzing and explaining. Through inquiry, students will be able to deduce their own knowledge through questioning and analyzing experiments.
This improvement could definitely help students on the NECAP test, where there is a substantial amount of inquiry-based material. Granted this inquiry is not the same as the inquiry we'll be doing in class, but students will still have a better understanding of the process and how to analyze and explain their data. In science, explaining and analyzing is especially useful. By using this in other classes students can learn to better understand their material by going through a similar process.
5.1, 5.4, 5.5
2.
Creating powerpoint presentations for lecture notes
Throughout student teaching, I've found that has been really effective has been giving notes through powerpoints. By doing this, I can both include pictures that correspond with the material we're learning, as well as poise questions throughout to both quiz students as well as stimulate their thinking before the information is given to them. This is important because it makes it easy for students to relate what students may already know to the new material we're learning about now. Another reason this could be useful would be to have students pick out important pieces of information from a sentence or large segment of words. This can help prepare students for college, where they may need to take notes by deciding what is important and what isn't.
This could be useful for entire school improvement if teachers work together maybe during common planning time to create powerpoints that are used across the department. Although this would be very difficult to initially do, eventually each powerpoint could be perfected as each year passes and things can be added/taken out that didn't quite work. Having a variety of teachers work together to create the powerpoint could also increase the amount of creativity and outside resources that are incorporated into the presentation. Having consistency across the curriculum could also create less gaps for learning when students have different teachers as they proceed in school.
2.3, 3.1, 7.1, 10.3
3.
Form personal connections between students and myself, as well as between students and their peers
As a teacher, I feel that forming personal connections with students is a very important part of everyday education. As a teacher, I personally feel that it is vital that my students not only remember me as an educator, but as an advisor and mentor as well. I want my students to feel comfortable enough with me to come to me with any problem they may have, both inside and outside of school. Many of these students may not have an appropriate adult figure in their life, and I think it's very important aspect of a students maturity both inside and outside of the classroom. Not only will this help students feel more at ease in your classroom, but by creating these connections with students there is a mutual respect between both student and teacher that helps to establish a safe and secure learning environment. Another thing I hope to do as well is to incorporate a lot of groupwork and group activities into my classroom. Utilizing this will help students develop their social skills, and again create relationships with their peers that will contribute to a safe and secure learning environment as well.
Forming personal connections with students could help to improve the school by creating a safer and more secure learning environment for all students. Students who may be having a rough day, need to talk to someone, or may be having trouble in a particular class may feel more at ease to indulge in their problems with an adult figure that they have former personal connections with. With the right role models, these students may avoid altercations or even may be stimulated to put forth more effort in a different class. Creating more opportunities for social interactions between students as well will create a more positive learning environment not only in my class, but in the entire school. Many of these students have multiple classes with these students and forming these personal connections with peers may minimize bullying, fights, and other things of this nature.
6.2, 6.5, 6.7
4.
Seek teachers in previous grades, schools, etc. of students (particularly middle school students) to see how and what students learned
Working with previous teachers is a great way to better understand the best ways how your students learn and the best ways to present the material. Particularly in math and science, I've found that using slightly different words that have similar meanings may be the difference between students understanding a concept and completely misunderstanding a concept. Also, learning about students behaviors and strategies that may have worked on maximizing their contributions in the classroom may also have a positive effect on both the student and your classroom.
Knowing certain ways and terms tha studenets learned with previous teachers could be a huge advantage to not only your classroom but the entire school. This information should be shared with both teachers and guidance counselors throughout the school, especially those with behavior issues and strategies that may have worked in the past. Doing this could create a positive learning environment throughout the school as well as maximize the potential of the students.
3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 6.2
Formulate a professional development goal based the needs that you have identified. This goal should be:
measurable/observable
should lead to improvement of teaching, student achievement, and/or improvement of learning environment.
should describe new knowledge or skills that you will acquire and how that knowledge/skill will affect the school/district setting.
linked to applicable Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards and elements, e.g. RIBTS 2.4.
In the space below, describe your professional development goal. In a second paragraph, use the information above to provide a rationale for your goal by explaining the personal need that it will address as well as how addressing this goal benefits your students and your school.
I. Professional Development Goal
My professional development goal would have to include incorporating more inquiry and critical thinking into my teaching. Although I think i incorporate a lot of critical thinking and having students applying what they are learning to other concepts as well as things outside the classroom. This is vital to my students learning because not only will they be able to identify certain terms and concepts, but they'll be able to explain and analyze different aspects of the topics and be able to apply them to other topics. Being able to reach these higher depths of knowledge will help students in my class as well as better prepare them for the NECAP testing that they'll be doing. It could help improve students overall achievement in other classes as well because after students learn this method of thinking and apply it on a daily basis, they may find that in other classes they approach concepts in the same way, asking questions and designing ways to problem solve. Especially in today's classroom, I feel inquiry and critical thinking is especially important in both keeping students attention as well as helping them reach higher depths of knowledge. As a new educator with a minimal amount of experience in inquiry, I feel like there is a lot of improvements I could make as I try to incorporate this style into my teaching.
Another thing I would like to improve on is somewhat a new problem to me. Throughout my student teaching, I've found classroom management an extremely easy task by forming personal connections with students and creating a mutual respect that is then used in the classroom. With one class of recent, I've found that a few students are really beginning to become a distraction for other students and taking away from the learning of others. In other classes, I've been able to work with these students and in essence incorporate them into the lesson which has helped them stay more focused and as well as the entire class. With these couple of students however, this method has not worked and I think another approach is needed. Although I like my classroom to be somewhat student-centered, where students can ask questions and are free to collaboratively work together to enhance their learning, it's become very difficult to incorporate this approach with these select few students without disrupting the rest of the class. Not only are students withdrawn from class due to these distractions, but these students also are known to bully others which may prevent them from participating in class. I hope to incorporate a more safe and secure environment where students feel free to express their ideas while still maintaining order and structure that prevents these students from becoming a distraction to others.
Now that you have a PD goal, think about what type of learning opportunities you will participate in to address your needs. Use these links to investigate learning options:
Based on what you have found out, write a 1-2 paragraph narrative outlining at least two ways (PD categories) you will engage in engage in by the end of your first year of teaching. For each activity, explain how you think it will address the need that you have identified.
EDC 484 Personal PD Plan
Teachers in Rhode Island currently maintain their certification by showing evidence of continuous professional development. Creating a personal PD plan is a unit-wide assignment in the School of Education for all student teachers. The steps below are designed to guide you through this process so that we can complete it efficiently.Formulate a professional development goal based the needs that you have identified. This goal should be:
In the space below, describe your professional development goal. In a second paragraph, use the information above to provide a rationale for your goal by explaining the personal need that it will address as well as how addressing this goal benefits your students and your school.
I. Professional Development Goal
My professional development goal would have to include incorporating more inquiry and critical thinking into my teaching. Although I think i incorporate a lot of critical thinking and having students applying what they are learning to other concepts as well as things outside the classroom. This is vital to my students learning because not only will they be able to identify certain terms and concepts, but they'll be able to explain and analyze different aspects of the topics and be able to apply them to other topics. Being able to reach these higher depths of knowledge will help students in my class as well as better prepare them for the NECAP testing that they'll be doing. It could help improve students overall achievement in other classes as well because after students learn this method of thinking and apply it on a daily basis, they may find that in other classes they approach concepts in the same way, asking questions and designing ways to problem solve. Especially in today's classroom, I feel inquiry and critical thinking is especially important in both keeping students attention as well as helping them reach higher depths of knowledge. As a new educator with a minimal amount of experience in inquiry, I feel like there is a lot of improvements I could make as I try to incorporate this style into my teaching.
Another thing I would like to improve on is somewhat a new problem to me. Throughout my student teaching, I've found classroom management an extremely easy task by forming personal connections with students and creating a mutual respect that is then used in the classroom. With one class of recent, I've found that a few students are really beginning to become a distraction for other students and taking away from the learning of others. In other classes, I've been able to work with these students and in essence incorporate them into the lesson which has helped them stay more focused and as well as the entire class. With these couple of students however, this method has not worked and I think another approach is needed. Although I like my classroom to be somewhat student-centered, where students can ask questions and are free to collaboratively work together to enhance their learning, it's become very difficult to incorporate this approach with these select few students without disrupting the rest of the class. Not only are students withdrawn from class due to these distractions, but these students also are known to bully others which may prevent them from participating in class. I hope to incorporate a more safe and secure environment where students feel free to express their ideas while still maintaining order and structure that prevents these students from becoming a distraction to others.
Based on what you have found out, write a 1-2 paragraph narrative outlining at least two ways (PD categories) you will engage in engage in by the end of your first year of teaching. For each activity, explain how you think it will address the need that you have identified.
II. Professional Development Plan